1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of protective cushioning devices for high speed and high impact sports. More particularly the present invention relates to the field of cushioning devices for protecting people's lower back body portions in high speed and high impact sports such as snowboarding or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In recent years a new sport--snowboarding--has become more and more popular. Many people have switched to this sport from other traditional sports such as downhill skiing. One special aspect of the new sport of snowboarding is its high speed and high impact. In snowboarding, the player is standing on a snowboard with both feet buckled to the bindings on the top of the snowboard. In use, since both feet are attached together and cannot move relative to each other, the user often falls. Due to the high speed and high impact of the snowboard, people who fall can very easily injure their tailbone. Current protective garments do not provide adequate cushioning for people's rear end when falling down. It is desirable to have a wearable cushioning device for people to wear as an additional protection in snowboarding, or similar sports, such as downhill skiing, rollerblading, ice skating, ice hockey, skateboarding and even skimboarding.
Another problem people experience with snowboarding is that they must unbuckle their boot bindings in order to get on the liftchair, and once they get to the top of the mountain, they must rebuckle the bindings. Since it is hard to rebuckle the boot bindings by standing on one foot, most the snow is often very cold and makes people's clothing get wet, sometimes even soiled. It is again desirable to have a wearable cushioning device for people to sit on when changing their bindings.
It is well known that a cushioning pad with certain firmness can be used for protecting injuries due to falling on one's rear. Traditional cushioning devices often have two types of filling materials: fiber materials such as cotton batting, and foam materials such as open cell reticular foam. Since fiber materials have very low densities, the cushioning device made of fiber material would have to be extremely bulky in order to gain the protection required in sports such as snowboarding. This makes the fiber type of cushions very unattractive and impractical. On the other hand, the foam type of cushions are also impractical because a high density foam would have to be very hard in order to give the required protection.
A more practical approach is to utilize an inflatable core member in a protective cushioning device. An air inflated cushion usually provides more firmness to offset the impact of falling. Also the firmness of an inflatable cushion can be individually adjusted by the user according to their individual needs. An inflatable cushion is the in high speed and high impact sports such as snowboarding.
The following prior art patents are found to be relevant to the present invention:
1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,721 issued to Beshro on Mar. 5, 1991 for "Combined Seat Cushion And Baseball Mitten" (hereafter the "Beshro Patent").
2. U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,230 issued to Vacanti on Feb. 12, 1991 for "Shock Absorbing Body Protective Pads" (hereafter the "Vacanti Patent").
3. U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,994 issued to Galton on Apr. 19, 1988 for "Garment For Protecting Wearer Against Bone Fracture" (hereafter the "Galton Patent").
4. U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,207 issued to Quartano on May 19, 1987 for "Child Shopping Cart Cushion" (hereafter the "Quartano Patent").
5. U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,125 issued to Sckolnik on Feb. 4, 1986 for "Child Safety Cushion" (hereafter the "Sckolnik Patent").
6. U.S. Pat. No. 2,652,183 issued to Hlivka on Sept. 15, 1953 for "Baby Holder For Childrens' Chairs" (hereafter the "Hlivka Patent").
7. U.S. Pat. No. 1,538,538 issued to Wood on May 19, 1925 for "Pad For Children's Chairs" (hereafter the "Wood Patent").
8. French Patent No. 1,552,200 issued to Verhons.
The French Patent is entirely in French. From the figures it appears to be a lady's slip 1 having a tubular extension 14 made of two annular thermoplastic boards 8 and 10 and attached to the waistline 5 of the lady's slip 1.
The Wood Patent discloses a pad for children's chairs. The pad has a main back and bottom section 1 and a fold-over section 2. The main section 1 has a multiplicity of straps 8 for attaching it to a chair. The fold-over section 2 has two openings 7 for allowing a child's legs to extend through them. Then the fold-over section 2 is then folded to cover the front of the child and is fastened by a pair of straps 3. The Wood Patent does not utilize an inflatable cushion and is strictly designed for use as a child safety device.
The Hlivka Patent also discloses a baby holder "A" for children's chairs which is similar to the one disclosed in the Wood Patent but has two additional pairs of loops 23, 23a and 24, 24a for adjusting the fastening position of the fold-over section.
The Sckolnik Patent discloses a child safety cushion 10 having a back portion 12, two side bolsters 14 and 16, and a seat portion 18. It also has a multiplicity of straps and small snaps for fastening the cushion 10 to a variety of objects and forming a chair-like cushion to firmly support a child. The Sckolnik Patent again does not utilize an inflatable cushion and is strictly designed for use as a child safety device.
The Quartano Patent discloses a child shopping cart cushion having a seat-back portion 10, a chest portion 11 and an interconnecting groin portion 12. It has a multiplicity of Velcro straps for fastening the cushion to a shopping cart. The Quartano Patent also does not utilize an inflatable cushion, and is strictly designed as a child safety device used with a shopping cart.
The Galton Patent discloses a garment for protecting a wearer against bone fracture resulting from accidental falling. It comprises an undergarment 1 having a waist band 1.1 and fabric portions 1.2 extending down from the waistline to cover the hip regions of the body of a wearer, a pocket forming fabric 2 stitched by stitching 3 to the undergarment 1 and forming two opposite pockets 2.1, 2.2 and an interconnecting portion 2.3 where the lower edge 4 of the interconnecting portion 2.3 is left open for serving as the entrance of the two pockets, an inflatable bag 5 of flexible impervious material such as synthetic rubber inserted inside the two pockets to form two cushion pads 5.1 and 5.2 interconnected by a connecting portion 5.3, and means for inflating the inflatable bag 5 such as a valve 6. The Galton Patent utilizes an inflatable bag for its cushioning garment. However, the Galton Patent has some fundamental disadvantages which make it impracticable to be used as protective cushioning device in high speed and high impact sports such as snowboarding.
The Vacanti Patent discloses a shock absorbing body protective pad having a pair of heat sealable members 11 and 12 sealed together to form a multiplicity of chamber elements 19-23. Each chamber element contains a foam pad for cushioning. A multiplicity of rigid tubular exhaust ports 32-37 are arranged to communicate between the chamber elements and the ambient air. The body has a multiplicity of interconnected chambers for receiving inserted pads. The Vacanti Patent pads are made of foam material which are not inflatable, and the firmness of the pads is not adjustable by the user.
The Beshro Patent discloses a combined seat cushion and baseball mitten having two pouches into which pads of foam plastic material are inserted. It can be sat on as a seat cushion or attached to a hand as a baseball mitten. It again utilizes pads made of foam material which are not inflatable, and the firmness of the pads is not individually adjustable.
First of all, none of the prior art patents particularly addressed the problem of protecting one's rear end from injuries due to accidental falling in the new high speed and high impact sports such as snowboarding. Many prior art patents are specially designed for use as child safety devices. There are some special requirements for cushions used for snow related sports. Since people wear heavy clothing, the cushions must be able to be conveniently worn outside of the heavy clothing.
Second and most important, most of the prior art patents utilize fiber or foam materials for their protective cushioning devices, which do not provide adequate protection. Only one of the prior art patents, the Galton Patent, employed an inflatable bag inserted into two pockets and an interconnecting portion for its protective cushioning garment.
However, the Galton Patent has some essential drawbacks which makes it impracticable to be used for high speed and high impact sports such as snowboarding. The Galton Patent cushion has two pockets for an inflatable bag. Each pocket covers one of the two opposite hip regions of the human body. The problem with the Galton Patent cushion is that there is only one large pocket covering one hip region, and the inflatable membrane inserted in that one large pocket is fairly large. Also, the undergarment and the pocket-forming fabric of the Galton Patent cushion are made of stretchable material. Therefore, the air in one portion of the large inflatable membrane is almost free to displace to other portions of the large inflatable membrane. When a wearer of the Galton Patent cushion falls on his or her rear, only a portion of an inflatable membrane of the Galton Patent cushion is directly located at the spot where the wearer's body contacts the ground. Upon impact, the air in that portion of the large inflatable membrane will displace itself into other portions of the same inflatable membrane. This air displacement effect of the Galton Patent cushion cancels a huge amount of cushioning benefit to the wearer portion of the inflatable membrane of the cushion. In addition, the undergarment design of the Galton Patent cushion prevents it from being used as an cushion device worn outside of the skier's heavy clothing.
It is clear that none of the prior art patents has ever addressed the special cushioning need of the high speed and high impact sports such as snowboarding, and none of the prior art patents provides adequate firmness for cushioning the blow of an accidental fall on one's rear. Therefore, there is a significant need for a newly designed and constructed inflatable cushion to be worn by people in high speed and high impact sports such as snowboarding, for cushioning the blow when falling on their rear, or for sitting on a seat when changing their ski bindings.